Mystic Genesis
by Raziel777
Summary: Tails sets off on an epic quest into space to uncover a secret power, hidden for millenia. When old and new enemies rise up, he is forced to do battle to save his friends and his own soul. ON HIATUS
1. Introduction

Mystic Genesis

Disclaimer: Sonic, Tails, and other characters are property of Sega. I do not own them. If I get in trouble for this, you're all going down with me.

A/N: This is my very first fanfic ever. I hope you all like it. This story will likely have many chapters, so stay tuned for updates. Please read and review, but most importantly, enjoy.

Chapter 1- Introduction- Assault on Robotropolis

**Somewhere outside Robotropolis 11:00 PM**

The Rain poured down hard. Very hard. Between the dark night and the rain, visibility was minimal.

"_This is not the kind of weather to be in when fighting a war against the forces of darkness," _Tails thought to himself as he stood in the middle of the open battlefield. _It fits the mood, though."_

"I hate the rain," he muttered to himself. He wore a black trench coat as his protection from the downpour.

A bolt of lightning streaked through the night sky, illuminating the area to near broad daylight for a millisecond. A resounding thunderclap that shook the heavens followed immediately.

"And I hate thunder and lightning even more," Tails said as he pulled his coat closer to himself. He knew he really should've kept moving, instead of standing still, but there was so much on his mind that he couldn't help but reflect on all the events leading to this war.

_"I never meant for it to happen this way."_

_"No. What am I talking about? I totally saw this coming. Right when I got back to Mobius..., I could've sensed it would lead to this."_

_Too late now. So many people are dead. My friends...," _he scanned the field around him, the scene lit up _by_ the lightning. The land was littered with corpses. Skulls of humans and mobians were strewn across the field. Everywhere he stepped, there were bones.

_"When I was a baby, I lost my family." _The thunder boomed as if it were responding to his thoughts.

_"When I was four, I fought alongside Sonic for the first time. Robotnik shot me out of the skies, then."_

_"When I was eight, I fought Chaos. I built a spaceship, saved the galaxy, and killed my love." _The battlefield was filled with the sounds of metal clashing against metal, bullets and lasers being fired, and things exploding. Tails was too absorbed to pay attention.

_I'm twelve now. I guess this is what I have to deal with at this age. This was all my fault. It's up to me to set things right."_

Sonic and Shadow both ran up towards Tails. "I finally found you, bro. Come on. This is no time to stand around," Sonic urged. "We've got to keep moving.

Tails finally snapped out of his daydreaming. "Sorry Sonic," Tails said. "I'm coming." The vulpine joined the hedgehogs and the three of them continued their assault.

"Sonic, we have to get inside the city right away," Shadow insisted. "If we stick around here too long, we'll run into more of those things."

Tails shuddered at the thought of what Shadow was referring to. The undead were not creatures he was very fond of encountering.

"Too late, Shadow. They're already coming," Sonic said as he pointed to a band of zombies shuffling towards them. Their unnatural moaning was muffled by the sound of the rain pouring down.

"Just remember to slice them apart as much as you can," Tails reminded his friends. He pulled out the weapon that he hid inside his trench coat. It was a katana in a black sheath. The fox unsheathed the blade slowly, He could've taken it out instantly and attacked the zombies in one quick motion, but he wanted to save his energy and zombies moved slowly anyway. The sword gleamed a bluish silvery glow in the moonlight. He readied his weapon in front of him. It was the barrier between him and the monsters. One zombie lurched forward and swung a skeletal arm at the vulpine. He swung his sword in turn and cut the arm off. The katana tore through the rotted flesh and bone as if it were paper. Sometimes, Tails would joke to himself that his sword was better at cutting things than a lightsaber. It was magical, after all. The zombie didn't pay attention to the fact that it was missing an arm. Neither did it seem at all impressed at the weapon that Tails had brought against them. They didn't have the minds to do so. It made sure that they would still attack, no matter what. And attacked they did. Tails swung his sword again multiple times, causing the zombie to fall apart into tiny pieces. The fox moved on to another zombie before the pieces of the previous one had a chance to fall onto the ground. The sword was the same size as his own body, but it felt weightless in his hands. The nimble fox easily cleaved a path through them all. He saw that his hedgehog comrades were doing the same, just as easily. The ringing sound of the blade flying through the air was something he found to be very enjoyable. Almost soothing. Cutting apart the zombies was a cakewalk, really. The hardest part was always the smell and the guts flying all about.

"That's looks like all of them," Sonic said as he sliced a zombie into two equal halves down the middle with his own sword. _"This sword works so well. Who would've thought Tails could forge magic swords?"_ The hedgehog lowered his blade and turned to Shadow. "Can you see anything through this haze?"

"Yeah. Eggman Empire, dead ahead," answered the black hedgehog.

"Wait. What's that sound?" Tails asked. He didn't really need to ask because he knew the sound all too well. It was the whir of machinery. The stomping of robotic legs. "Sounds like a big mech."

The robot had a vaguely humanoid shape and was twelve feet tall. It looked like it weighed a ton. Spikes jutted were protruding from nearly every part of its body. It raised up its two massive fists and slammed them into the ground. The slam sent a shockwave that knocked Sonic, Shadow, and Tails off their feet. Skulls on the ground shattered into white powder.

"I'll take care of this," Sonic said as he stood up, baring his longsword. He curled into a ball and did a sonic spin. Combined with his sword, it was a deadly move. He spun towards the robots chest. The spot with the least amount of spikes. He struck with his sword dead on, but bounced off, not making a single dent in the robot's hide.

"The Hell?" Sonic exclaimed.

"It's made out of adamantium, "Shadow said."We can't penetrate that. Chaos spear should be able to-"

"No. Wait," Tails interrupted. "I've got this." He walked up to the mech and extended one arm. The robots glowing red eyes analyzed the little mobian standing before him.

"Observation: Mobian, fox. Two tails due to mutation," said the robot. "Analyzing intent: Hostile. Proceed to atomize." The mech began to charge up the lasers mounted to its arm gauntlets.

"Heh," the vulpine laughed. "I've got my own energy attacks. Finally, all this lightning will be useful, for a change." Tails extended his arm toward the heavens and made a motion as if he were pulling something out of the sky. A lightning bolt descended and blasted into the robot where it stood. Tails extended another arm and made a fist with his hand. Now he was keeping the lightning bolt in place, so it would continue to pour its white hot energy into the mech.

"Assessment: Lethal electrostatic discharge. 85 percent damage to hardware." the robot said. The lightning dissipated, but not before melting the laser gauntlets to slag, as well as melting the majority of its spikes and its hard adamantium shell. The vulpine's powerful nose picked up the smell of ozone in the air.

"That should soften him up for you guys," Tails said to his teammates.

"All right, Tails!" Sonic said. "Now let's do it to it." The three charged at the robot with swords in hand. This time, they easily cut through the metallic mech. The robot blew apart, sending shards of metal and oil in all directions.

Tails looked down at his katana. Even with the rain washing the blade clean, it still dripped with blood and oil.

"Look, Tails," Shadow said. "We've reached the city gates."

Tails looked, but he didn't pay much attention to the iron gates before him. He was looking up, staring at the tall technological spires that towered into the sky. The city was full of them.

"You sure you're ready for this, buddy?" Sonic asked as he put his arm on his friend's shoulder."

"Ready as I'll ever be," Tails said as he returned the katana back to its sheath. "I can't wait any longer."

Lightning bolts were constantly striking the tips of the towers. Tails fixed gaze on the tallest one he could see.

"Cosmo is in here. And I'm going to save her."


	2. Fun With Plastics

Chapter 2- Fun With Plastics

**Two years earlier Hydrocity 5:00 AM**

There was still plenty of time to pick the lock that would lead to the entrance into the dungeon, but Charmy the Bee didn't want to take this operation slowly. Sure, he didn't have the legendary impatience of Sonic the Hedgehog, or his intense hydrophobia, but Charmy still felt antsy about being at the bottom at the deepest chasm in Hydrocity.

A fast acting acid worked just as well as a lock pick. After a satispfying hissing sound, the lock felt apart and it took just a small push to get that door open. There was nothing inside he didn't expect. Just a dark water cavern. He swam through the dark abyss in a hurry. It took just a minute until he found air. According to Charmy's source, the dungeon would be dry from here on in. That being the case, he removed his scuba suit and threw it in his bag full of equipment.

"_Weird," _Charmy thought. _"Here I am at the bottom of the Floating Island, exploring a dungeon even Knuckles doesn't know about, looking for a treasure he definitely has no idea even exists. The only one who knows about this place is the guy that asked me to come here. Speaking of which, I'd better call him and tell him what's up."_

Charmy switched on his communicator, "Tails. Hey, Tails! You there? Tails? I guess I'm not reaching him."

He was wrong. Charmy's voice was loud and clear on the speakers in the sea fox, but the only one who could hear him wasn't in any position to listen. The two-tailed fox who commanded his submarine, the sea fox, was sound asleep inside. He was leaning back in his chair and snoring. His feet were rested on the controls of the cockpit. A snot bubble blew out of his nose, never straying from the source, but going in and out with the rhythm of the snoring.

"Wait a minute. What's that noise?" Charmy could hear the snoring coming through his communicator.

"Wake up, Tails!" Charmy shouted through his mike.

The kitsune awoke and jumped out of his seat. "AAAAAH! We're under attack!" he cried. "Must fire torpedoes!"

"No, Tails. It's fine," came a voice from the speakers. Tails immediately identified it as Charmy's.

"Oh. Hey, Charmy. What's up?" Tails was glad they weren't on video link. He didn't need Charmy to see him freak out.

"Well, I'm in the dungeon and my so-called "guide" decided to take a nap on me."

"Can you blame me? I've been up all night."

"You were the one who decided to head down here at this hour."

"I had to pick this time. It's the safest time to go crash the Floating Island without Knuckles finding us. I really don't want him to know that we're here."

"Yeah, I know. Knux sure does like to roll out the welcome mat."

"If the welcome mat says "scram" on it, then yeah, he does.

"OK, Charmy, I'm awake now. What's your status? Tell me what you see."

"All right," Charmy paused to choose the right words to describe his surroundings. "Well, you were right that the cave is full of air, but it's not from any natural means. There's a wall of water behind me frozen in place. Must have been some kind of spell meant to keep this place dry. The sea should be rushing into this cave, but it's not."

"That makes sense," Tails said as he rubbed his chin. "The ones who built this dungeon obviously wanted to keep the contents protected from water damage." Tails looked at the computer monitor in front of him which presented him with a complete layout of the Hydrocity caverns. He spotted a red blinking spot which showed Charmy's location.

"Ok, Charmy. I know where you are now. I'm looking at the map in front of me. You're gonna make a left at the next turn. After that, you'll see a stair well. Take the stairs down. It's a long way down, so it'll take you about ten minutes until you reach the bottom. Call me back when you get to the bottom."

"OK. Just don't fall asleep on me, man."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Somehow, Charmy knew Tails was smirking when he said that.

"I'm serious. You have to stay alert in case I need you. Remember, you're my eyes and ears down here."

"Yeah, I'm also your mouth, so just shaddup and keep moving,"

Charmy wasn't offended by Tails' last comment. Obviously, he was joking. Tails never told anybody to shut up before. Hell, Tails never even seriously insulted anybody in his life. Except for Robotnik and his badniks, of course. _"But if Tails was going to start telling people to shut up, he would most likely start with a motor mouth like me," _Charmy chuckled to himself as he continued on in the dungeon.

His light wasn't necessary anymore. There were torches lining all the dungeon walls. Various hieroglyphics and symbols decorated the stone walls. Charmy wasn't an archeologist, but he didn't need to be one to get a feel of this dungeon's mood. There were pictures of skulls, serpents, demonic beasts, and people getting engulfed in fire. That kind of stuff. Sure enough he got to the stairwell. Just as he thought, the bottom of the stairwell was too far down to see. Even throwing a torch down there didn't help. It just got swallowed by the blackness. _"Maybe I should throw some of these explosives down there," _Charmy smiled to himself_. "But, no. I should really save these for later." _His smile now wore off as he descended the haunting looking stairwell.

"_Charmy should be heading down there by now," _Tails thought to himself. _"Good. Now maybe I can just relax for at least a few more minutes." _He stretched out his arms and let out a big yawn. It wasn't that Tails was really that tired. He was just feeling really relaxed. He felt so tranquil being at the bottom of this underground sea. It was so quiet, so peaceful. Tails really didn't get what Sonic's problem with water was, anyway. _"Why doesn't that guy just learn to swim? Maybe I should teach Sonic how to swim. That should be interesting." _Tails mused to himself.

"Hey, Tails," The vulpine's zoning out was interrupted once again by the bee.

"Did you get to the bottom yet, Charmy?"

"I think I'm almost there, but I was just thinking. Whoever set this dungeon up, don't you think they'd leave something to be guarding the treasure? You know, like some huge monster or something?"

"_A monster?" _Tails didn't even think about the idea of having a monster encounter. It was certainly possible.

"You're right. There could be something around here for us to deal with. At the very least, there could be some booby traps waiting for you. But if you just watch your step, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one doing all the dungeon delving here."

Tails tried to explain. "You know I have to stay outside so I can monitor everything. But you know, Charmy, you're the best one fit for this job. Remember, you're a bee. It's a bee's job to gather nectar and make honey, and that's exactly what we're doing here. Except we're gonna make something a lot sweeter than honey." Tails smiled to himself, pleased with his pep talk he just gave. He hoped it would be as effective as Sonic's encouragements were on him. If he could've seen Charmy's face though, he'd know it wasn't really appreciated.

"I don't see why I couldn't bring Vector and Espio down here to help me out."

"Oh, believe me. They have their own really important mission."

Meanwhile, on the surface of Angel Island, Vector the crocodile and Espio the chameleon poked their heads out of the bushes to observe their target unseen.

"This is really boring Espio. This is probably the most boring mission I've ever done," Vector growled.

"Why are you complaining already, Vector," Espio the chameleon whispered back. "We've only been here about ten minutes."

"Because I don't think anything's going to happen," Vector answered in a loud whisper. "That echidna is out like a light." Vector was referring to Knuckles the echidna, who was fast asleep at the top of the Master Emerald shrine.

"You know, there's no point in whispering if you're just gonna do it loudly," Espio whispered back "Seriously, it's like you want Knuckles to wake up or something."

Vector shrugged. "At least that'd give us something to do."

"All right. I got an idea," Espio put his arm around Vector and drew him close to his face. "Tails wants us to keep an eye on Knuckles so he won't find out about his screwing around on the Island."

"Yeah. So?"

"So, my crocodile friend. All we really have to do is get Knuckles out of the way. What we could do is we'll grab sleeping beauty up there and haul him off somewhere where he won't be anywhere near us."

"And then Tails and Charmy can mess around as much as they want."

"Exactly. Now doesn't that sound like a lot more fun?"

"Well, yeah, but are you sure we can grab Knux without waking him up?"

No, problem. "You see," Espio explained, "Knuckles is a very deep sleeper. These guardians are all trained so that whenever some huge bruiser decides to crash onto the Floating Island and call himself King of the Mountain, the guardian proceeds to get in his face and open a can of whoop-ass. You see, the reason this is so, is because the echidnas are very honorable people. They couldn't even imagine someone would sneak into their territory and nab an emerald without challenging the guardian to a fight. That leaves guys like Knuckles completely open to deception and stealth. I mean, look at how many times Robotnik has tricked Knuckles already. The point is, once we make our move, Knux'll never know what hit him."

Back in the depths of Hydrocity, Charmy reached the bottom and found himself facing a thick, iron door. "This must be it," he said with excitement. "Time to roll out the plastic explosives."

"OK, Charmy, once you blow open that door, you'll be inside the treasure chamber." Tails told him.

"Gotcha, Tails," Charmy set up the plastic explosives. He was going to enjoy this bang. Charmy always enjoyed a good explosion. The rest of the chaotix were no different. In fact, it was probably this reason why this was the first job Vector chose to take where money wasn't promised. He remembered when Tails showed up at the detective agency yesterday.

Flashback

Tails opened the door to the Chaotix Detective Agency to see a familiar sight. Vector was sleeping in front of his desk, despite the fact that his headphones were blasting into his ears. Espio was sitting in the corner in the lotus position, meditating, and Charmy was most likely inside the locker.

"Hey, guys!" Tails shouted as he burst in with a smile and a wave.

Vector got up from his desk and looked down at Tails with a scowl. "I didn't order a wake up call," he snarled.

"Yeah, but I got a job for you. A really good one, too."

Espio's eyes opened up and his ears perked up with interest. Charmy also heard what was going on and flew towards Tails to hear the details.

Vector just drew his face closer to Tails, that same crocodile scowl met with the fox's exuberant smile. "You got money?" That was all he needed to ask.

"Well," Tails tried to explain, rubbing his fingers together, "I don't actually have any money on me...," His voice trailed off at that point.

"What?" Vector prodded him. "Speak up, sonny."

"But instead, I can give you guys all kinds of cool gadgets!"

"What kind of gadgets?" Espio inquired.

"Oh, you know," Tails said."All the cool stuff hardcore spies and detectives use. Surveillance equipment, utility belts, gas pellets, x-ray specs, tracking devices, cars that transform into other things, ummm…,"

"Explosives!" Charmy interrupted.

"Yeah! Explosives!" Tails agreed. "All kinds of bombs. Mini grenades, big grenades, grenade launchers, those pens that explode when you click them, incendiaries, napalm…"

At this point, both Charmy's and Tails' faces were grinning pretty widely.

Vector shook his head. _"It's a good thing Bean isn't here. His mouth would be foaming if he heard this."_

"OK. So back to the point," said Tails."It seems like you're all interested in this job. If that's the case, we set out for the Floating Island tomorrow. Our objective is to seek out a hidden mystical treasure deep within the Island. So well kept is this secret treasure that no echidna ever knew of its existence. If we can get it, I could really get to work on building some insane hi-tech inventions!"

End Flashback

"_Tails never did mention to us how he knew about this treasure or its location,"_ Charmy thought as he applied the plastic explosives to the door. _"Maybe I'll have to ask him about that later. Still, it's great to have Tails around as our techie guy. Every detective should have one. He's like Q to our James Bond. Maybe we should make him an honorary Chaotix member."_

Inside the sea fox, Tails was having thoughts of his own. _"Maybe I should have told them more about this treasure and how I found out about it. These guys would be able to understand what I'm trying to do here. I guess I'll tell them everything when we get out of here." _

Suddenly, the tranquility of the sea fox was disturbed by a violent shaking. "Whoa! Maybe I should make that _if _we get out of here!" Tails tried to gain his balance to look and see what was going on. He looked outside the window to see that his submarine was now in the jaws of a huge sea serpent. "Damn! I guess Charmy was right to worry about monsters." Getting a steadier look through the window, Tails noticed it was a two-headed hydra. One head already had the sea fox in the grasp of its jaws. The other head was getting ready to tear the submarine apart. Tails started to feel a cold sweat pour down his face. "To tell the truth, I really wouldn't mind doing something more boring right now, like Vector and Espio's job."

---

Vector and Espio had managed to carry the unconscious Knuckles all the way to Carnival Night Zone.

"This is going so great, Espio. The poor shmuck has barely budged."

"It's all about the ninja skills, my friend. But where should we take him?"

"Ha! There's a reason I chose to go to Carnival Night Zone," The crocodile laughed, pointing to one of those black carnival cannons.

"Oh, yeah. Those things can fire a body pretty far."

"And after we throw Knuckles in here, it'll be a one way ride all the way to the Ice Caps."

They slid Knuckles into the cannon and then prepared to fire.

"Wait a minute, Vector. You hear that?"

There was movement coming from the inside the cannon.

Vector's eyes were wide with panic. "Oh, crap! He's awake!"

Knuckles hands and arms popped out of the cannon. He had a menacing look on his face.

"All right! You bozos better start explaining to me just what this is all about!"

"He's mad, Espio!"

"You better not touch that thing, Espio!" Knuckles demanded.

"Sorry, Knux, but you're clearly in no position to talk. It looks like you could use a vacation," Espio told him calmly.

He pulled the firing mechanism, causing Knuckles to shoot out into the sky.

"AAAAARRRGHHH!" the echidna cried, as he disappeared into the stratosphere.

"He'll be mad as a hornet when he gets back, won't he?" Espio asked, with the straightest face he could make.

"Hopefully, we'll be off the island by then." Vector said as he looked up and watched Knuckles vanish with a twinkle.

"All right!" Charmy clapped his hands, "we're ready to blow this thing!" The bee stood back at a safe distance as the door blew apart into fragments. The blast sent a rush of wind past Charmy. There was a large cloud of dust hanging in the air, preventing the bee from looking inside the chamber. "I don't know what's in there, but I've got lots of C-4 if I need it," he said as he proudly patted his pack that was filled with C-4.

The dust started to clear. As more dust settled, Charmy grew more excited. "Wow! I've done it! I've found the secret treasure chamber! I've struck gold! I've struck silver! I've struck…" The dust was cleared away at this point. "…a library?"

Tails was racking his brain, looking for a solution to this dilemma. _"This thing is gonna tear everything apart. I've gotta do something quick." _Water started leaking into the sub and the monstrous teeth were piercing deeper into the metal. _"One chance_. _I'll have to use all of this vessel's power to break free." _He frantically pressed every important looking button surrounding him. Not out of desperation, but to bring everything to full power. The engines started to roar to life. The beast, which now had both heads biting into the sea fox, one at each end, didn't seem to notice or care. "Blast off!" It was a struggle at first. The sub wasn't breaking free and the serpent had no intention of letting go. "Maybe you just need a distraction." Tails launched a pair of torpedoes. It didn't matter what they hit, so long as they made a lot of noise. The torpedoes detonated into the rock formations of the chasm. The explosions did as they were intended to do. The serpent let go of the sub to react to this new threat. Rocks started to fall from all directions. One particularly big one landed right on the creature's head. Tails heard it let out an unnatural howl. It turned its gleaming yellow eyes towards the sub, figuring out that the vulpine inside was responsible for this chaos. _"This is going to be bad, but at least I'm free."_

Charmy stood in the treasure chamber surveying his surroundings. He didn't expect to find nothing but a pile of old books and scrolls. From the looks of the place, it appeared to be an ancient library. The walls were lined with bookshelves. Most of them were empty, with the exception of some old, musty tomes lying around in a disorganized fashion. Candles were placed around the room in a circle, casting a dim, flickering light. _"Those candles must have been burning for centuries." _There was a table in the center of the room. On it were more books and scrolls. Charmy felt strange as he approached the table. It was as if they were letting off some kind of aura. Charmy's eyes widened. "So that's what this is all about," he lifted up one of the scrolls and unrolled it. It was written in a script he had never seen before. "Musty old books, eternal flames, walls of water, crazy runes and sigils. These must be magical texts. Tails must be trying to add some magic to his creations. I'd better tell him that I found it."

Tails wasn't in a good position to hear Charmy's good news. The sea fox was flying through the water, with the two-headed monster in fast pursuit.

"Tails. I got the treasure!" Charmy's voice entered the sea fox.

"Oh. That's great, Charmy," he wasn't sure if Charmy heard him with the background noise of that creature's incessant howling. "_I hope I'll still be alive to enjoy it."_

"Hey, what's going on out there. I hear noises. Is a gigantic sea serpent trying to eat you or something?"

"_Wow, Charmy. You're good."_ Then an idea hit him. "Charmy, I'm coming in there. Just stay there, OK?"

"What? All right."

The dungeon entrance wasn't really big enough for the sea fox to fit through, but Tails was running out of options. The drill at the front of the sea fox was already active and he used it to plow through anything in the way. The monster used its own stubbornness and strength to do the same. He was constantly checking the map of the dungeon on his monitor, looking for when he would be right above the treasure chamber. He also constantly looked back to see how close the serpent was to him.

"_You shouldn't have come here," _A voice growled in the vulpine's head.

"_Was that the serpent? Did that thing just talk to me? So it must be telepathically communicating with me. Right now, I don't have time to talk."_

Tails finally pinpointed his location as being directly above Charmy. "Time to go down," he declared as he drilled straight down through the earth, leaving a large hole in his wake. The serpent went down the hole, too, crushing everything that got in its way.

"He probably wants me to take all the ones lying on this table." Charmy stuffed everything he could fit into a large bag. Now he was carrying two bags. One was filled with mystical scrolls, and the other with lots of explosives. "I don't think I can really carry all this stuff. It was very nice of Tails to come down here and help."

The bee stood still and looked at his watch, waiting for Tails to show up. He was standing perfectly still, until something caused him to fall backwards. Charmy then realized that the room was vibrating. He noticed a lot of rumbling coming from above. Then, the ceiling started to crack. Water began dripping down into the chamber. "Yeah, this doesn't look good."

The ceiling exploded as water gushed in. Charmy ran for cover.There was nowhere to run, and so Charmy was swalowed up by the fraging flood. He swam up to the surface and gasped for air. "What the Hell is going on?" he asked. His answer came in the form of the sea fox plunging in, as the room became almost fully submerged in water. The submarine's cockpit opened up and Tails poked his head out.

"Charmy! Hurry up and get in!" Tails called out.

"Coming," Charmy flew towards the sea fox holding up both bags.

"Leave the bag with the explosives behind you," Tails commanded. "Just take the bag with the scrolls."

"Whatever you say, man," Charmy did as Tails said and left the bag full of explosives behind him as he flew into the sea fox. The sub shut its doors just in time. The chamber was now fully submerged underwater.

"That was a pretty crazy entrance, Tails. I guess subtlety isn't for you," Charmy grumbled.

"Well, you know. When you're being chased by monsters, you end up doing a lot of crazy things."

"Monsters?"

As if on cue, the two-headed hydra descended into the chamber.

Charmy's jaw dropped open. "Holy Crap! That thing is huge!"

"I know. Don't remind me."

"So, what are we gonna do?"

"Watch and learn," Tails smirked. He pressed another of his buttons and fired a harpoon out of the sea fox, impaling the creature in one if its necks, lodging it into the chamber walls. The monster screamed and writhed in pain as its blood swam through the water.

"That should hold him down, at least for a little while," Tails said triumphantly.

The sea fox moved into the upright position and exited the chamber through the hole in the ceiling that it made.

"That monster is gonna escape and come after us. We've got to kill it!" Charmy protested.

"We're going to do that right now," Tails assured him. "But I need you to handle the torpedoes."

"I was waiting for you to say that."

"Just make sure that the torpedoes can get through this hole and back in the room with all the explosives. Press the button that sends the torpedoes to fire backwards."

"I get it now. We use the torpedoes to detonate the explosives we left behind, turning the sea serpent into sushi. Good thinking, Tails."

Charmy readied the mechanisms and fired two torpedoes down the hole. While the torpedoes raced towards the chamber, the serpent used its free head to yank the harpoon out of its neck. It was bleeding profusely, but it was too angry to care. It just wanted revenge, but before it could chase after the sub through the whole, the torpedoes came shooting in. One of them made a direct hit on Charmy's pack of C-4. The explosion sent a devastating shock wave throughout the dungeon. The force sent the sea fox smashing into the rocky walls, right and left.

"Oh, my God! There's a gigantic fireball headed straight for us. Go faster, Tails!"

"This is the fastest we can go!" Tails cried out. He could sense the area glow red from the fireball that was traveling closer and closer to them.

"Oh, man! What do we do? What do we do?"

"I don't know! Just scream at the top of your lungs. It'll remove tension."

"Great idea! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"And brace yourself!" Tails added. He clenched his hands as hard as he could on the wheel. Maybe it couldn't actually make him go faster, but it felt like it could.

The sea fox shot out of the caves and made its way into the open waters. The explosion destroyed everything behind it. The fireball from the explosion was still hot on the sub's trail.

"Holy Crap!" Charmy cried and he grabbed onto Tails' tails.

""Owww! Don't pull on those!" Tails yelped.

They both screamed as loud as they could. They kept screaming until the sea fox breached the surface of the waters. The journey going up would have ended there, but the force of the explosion sent the waters shooting up like a geyser, with the sea fox resting on top.

"We're headed straight for the top ceiling of Hydrocity. I'm gonna aim the drill at it and fire another torpedo," Tails announced.

"Please," Charmy begged. "I can't take any more explosions." He looked like he was ready to vomit.

"Charmy, please don't barf in the sea fox right now," Tails warned him.

The torpedo blasted into Hydrocity's rocky ceiling and the sea fox's drill burrowed through whatever was still intact. The gushing of the water propelled the sub out of Hydrocity and into the open air.

"We're falling aren't we?" Charmy asked calmly. His eyes were half closed.

"Yup," Tails responded, also in a relaxed manner. "We're falling."

"Wanna bail?"

"After you."

The sea fox's cockpit opened up and the duo leapt out into the air carrying the bag of books in tow. Using their natural flying abilities, they hovered in the air and watched the sea fox crash into the ground of Marble Garden. It landed on a steep hill and kept on rolling down the grassy hill, banging into different obstacles along the way, finally landing on a flat plain of grass.

Tails and Charmy slowly hovered to the ground to observe the wreckage. Tails glanced up and down and stroked his chin. "You know, the sea fox doesn't look that bad," he explained to Charmy. "Repairing it shouldn't be a problem."

Suddenly, and enormous spiked ball of metal attached to a chain swung around and smashed into the sea fox, sending it on another course down the hills. Its descent was stopped as it impaled itself on one of the many beds of spikes that frequented Marble Garden.

"No," Charmy said as he shook his head. "That thing is gone."

"Oh, well," Tails sighed with a smile. "That was my second sea fox anyway. I guess it was just time to build a third. In the meantime, let's just go back to meet with Vector and Espio."

Tails and Charmy both walked along the Marble Garden pathways, enjoying the cool, morning air, happy that nothing was requiring them to run for their lives.

It didn't take long for them to walk back to the X-Tornado, but the meeting place was missing one crocodile and a chameleon.

"That's odd," Tails said as he scratched his head." Vector and Espio were supposed to meet us here. Did something happen to them?

"Maybe they went looking for snacks," Charmy suggested.

"Could be. In the meantime, I want to take a look at some of these scrolls."

Tails opened the bag and dumped out some scrolls. He unrolled one particularly large scroll and glanced at it. Charmy looked on with him. The texts were written in a strange archaic language.

"Can you read that stuff, Tails?"

"Kinda. It's an ancient kitsune language, used amongst my ancestors. I've been studying it a lot lately. You see this scroll here is an astronomical text, complete with star charts of different galaxies. The crazy thing is that this must have been written before space travel. From the looks of these diagrams, their work is very accurate. "

"You're thinking of going into outer space?"

"Mmmmmaybe."

Rustling came from the bushes behind them. Charmy turned around, but Tails was too engrossed in his reading to pay attention. Vector and Espio burst out of the bushes in a panic. They looked as if they trampled by a herd of elephants.

"Tails. Charmy," Vector panted. "Look out. You're gonna get clobbered."

"Not now, Vector," Tails dismissed him with a wave of his hand, not even looking up from the scroll.

His concentration was broken by a tap on the shoulder. Tails pulled the scroll down away from his face.

Knuckles was standing in front of him. He was dripping wet and shivering. He didn't look very happy.

"Knuckles, what happened to you?" Tails asked. "Did you go skinny dipping with penguins or something?"

It was at that moment that a union took place between a fox face and an echidnan fist.

End Chapter 1


	3. The Quest

Chapter 3- The Quest

**Angel Island**

Tails woke up in a daze. He couldn't feel his face.

"_Oh, man. I've never been hit that hard in my entire life. Heck, not even Shadow ever hit me that hard before."_

The winner of the record for people who clobbered Tails the hardest was still standing before his victim. Despite the fact that he got to deal out the punishment he wanted, that face of his indicated he wasn't satisfied yet. The angry echidna walked up to the dazed fox and screamed in his face "Get up, kid! I've got a lot to say to you!"

Tails wiped the echidna saliva off his face. _"Man, this is gonna suck._ _I'm reallt gonna have to listen to him all day_._ I've just gotta talk to him reasonably. That'll calm him down."_

"Knuckles, is my face bleeding?" Tails asked pointing to his face.

"No. But I can arrange that for you if you like."

Tails looked away from Knuckles' face and turned his eyes towards the sky as he thought, _"So much for calming him down. Maybe I should just apologize. I don't really know why he's this angry."_

"Hey! Don't daydream on me now! I know that you're the one who brought these clowns to this island to make trouble." Knuckles pointed his finger at Vector and Espio, while still focusing his gaze at Tails. "After I beat the crap out of them, they told me the whole story. What's the deal with trespassing on my island, digging into places you're not allowed? And don't think I don't know about those explosions!"

"Wow, Knux is so angry, he's turning purple. If this keeps up, he's gonna look like Espio," Vector joked.

Tails didn't want to face Knuckles in this situation. Part of him wanted to burst out laughing at the scene he was displaying. Another part of him wanted to run away in terror.

"_This guy is really fuming. I had no idea someone's veins could throb like that. It makes me want to poke them. But that would be stupid. Maybe if I changed the subject..."_

Tails still didn't want to look at Knuckles for too long, so he turned his attention to the chaotix. "I don't get it, guys. This is the complete opposite of what was supposed to happen. I knew he was gonna act like this."

"Sorry, Tails," Vector said sadly."We were actually trying to distract him."

"Maybe you retards forgot that this is _my _island and I know it better than anyone else! It was easy for me to quickly make it back from Ice Cap Zone!"

Knuckles finally set his attention away from Tails towards the chaotix. He breathed a sigh of relief that Knuckles got out of his face, at least for a moment.

The echidna turned back towards Tails. _"Aw, crap. He's back."_

"And I bet you just thought it was hilarious to have me get shot out of a cannon and have me land in the sea of that frozen wasteland! I'll bet you wished you were there to see that, huh?"

Tails tried to be the voice of reason again. He formed a nervous smile and lifted his hands up as if they could defend against Knuckles' words. Then he explained. "Actually, I never told them to shoot you out of a cannon. All I did was I asked for them to watch you while you were sleeping so you wouldn't get disturbed and we could do our stuff without you ever knowing we were here."

Knuckles continued to rant on. "Oh, that just makes everything all better! Is that supposed to be your idea of an apology? This just makes me angrier!" Knuckles clenched his fists and shook them at the vulpine. "Remind me to slap you later, Tails. Wait. Why wait? I'll just slap you now!"

The echidna fulfilled his words and slapped the poor fox right across his cheek. Tails' body flew back several feet, spun around and landed face first into the dirt.

'Oooooh!" Tails moaned as he picked himself up.His face was all red with bruises. "Knuckles, you can't keep doing this to my face. There are a lot of girls back at Station Square who are big fans of me. They love my super cute face. It would be a crime to mangle it up."

"Don't worry, Tails," Charmy assured him. "You look even cuter when you're hurt. It makes you so sympathetic. If all those girls were here right now, they'd be all over you. They be hugging you and kissing you're face and everything." Charmy changed his voice to a higher pitch and started doing his best impressions of adoring fan girls. "Oh, Tails. Are you all right? Does Tailsy-Wailsy need a hug? Want us to rub your tummy? Scratch you behind your ears? Would that make you feel better? Ohhhh. You're so soft and cuddly. Don't worry. We'll make you feel all better." Charmy started to grope himself. He noticed everyone had such exasperated looks on their faces, especially Tails. Charmy decided to go back to his normal voice. "In fact, you should try crying. That'll really top it off."

Charmy was enjoying this. He was the only guy to be in this situation unscathed. Knuckles hadn't paid any attention to him at all.

Tails was getting real tired of this whole mess. Knuckles seemed to have cooled down a little bit so he decided this was the best time to talk to him. "Look, I was just joking about the fan girls stuff. The truth is, I actually meant to come talk to you about this, Knuckles. I'm on a very important quest. That's why we came here. In fact, to continue on, I'm going to need your help."

"A quest, huh?" That was the first thing Knuckles said today without screaming. "OK. I'm listening. But when I say I'm listening, I mean I'm also thinking about kicking your sorry ass off this island."

_"This is as cooperative as he's going to get. I should count myself lucky I made it this far."_

"Knux," Tails spoke, "I want to take a shard of the Master Emerald."

"YOU WHAT!"

"_I knew that was going to happen."_

"So you want to take the Master Emerald and for what purpose, again?" Knuckles asked.

"First of all, I said I only need a shard of the Master Emerald. Not the whole thing. I need to use it for my invention I'm going to build a device that will allow me to detect the energy signals that chaos emeralds leave off. This will allow me to easily seek out other chaos emeralds throughout the universe."

"Huh? Search out all chaos emeralds in the universe? Maybe you'd better start over, kid."

"OK. So the reason I came to this island was to find these ancient scrolls." He showed Knuckles the bag of scrolls he collected. "According to my research, these magical texts were written by kitsunes. They are my ancestors and they once lived on Angel Island. They were probably long gone before this island started floating. I feel that I have a connection to my heritage. From what I've read so far, the kitsunes were very proficient in the use of chaos energy and it all has something to do with the use of magic. These scrolls here are spell books. They contain techniques that can be used when channeling the power of the chaos emeralds. These abilities were passed down by the kitsunes for centuries. I'm trying to use these scrolls and find new chaos emeralds to tap into my hidden powers."

"That's it? You want a piece of my Emerald just so you can work on some history project about your heritage? Forget it."

"Not just my history, Knuckles. _Our _history. The echidnas probably lived together with the kitsunes on Angel Island long ago. It's possible that they learned a lot from each other. If we can discover the connection between the echidnas, the kitsunes, and the chaos emeralds, who knows what we can find out?"

"Honestly, kid. You were the last guy I expected to show up here and cause trouble. What got you into doing crap like this?" Knuckles asked.

Tails sighed and he closed his eyes as he thought of how to tell this story. After contemplating for a minute, he looked up and started to explain everything.

"It all started two year ago after our war with the Metarex. We defeated the enemy, but it was at the price of Cosmo's life. You know I had feelings for her, Knuckles. So after we got back to Mobius, I couldn't stop thinking about her. I really didn't know how to go on with my life. But that wasn't the last I heard from Cosmo. Now, don't call me crazy just yet, but I've been having these visions ever since that day. Maybe it was a ghost or an angel. I don't know. But I could see her. She would speak to me. She would tell me that I could bring her back to this world and that we would be together again. I would hear her say stuff like how her race was tied to the chaos emeralds. She told me that there were more emeralds out there, including other Master Emeralds. Then I…"

"Boooooring," Charmy cut Tails off.

Tails ignored him and continued. He didn't notice that Vector was grabbing Charmy's neck and chocking him while yelling at him for his rudeness. "I had this dream where there was this dragon and he started telling me about hidden magic powers that we could access. Even sonic hasn't reached his highest levels yet. And then I heard that the kitsunes knew the hidden secrets in chaos and they wrote these ancient scrolls. So then-"

"Whoa. That's enough," Knuckles held up his palm at Tails, motioning him to stop. "You're rambling. I didn't understand a single thing you just said. I swear, you may be smart, but you're useless at explaining anything."

"OK. I'll explain. Knuckles, how many forms can you transform into when using the emeralds?"

'Two. I turn into Super Knuckles, and with the super emeralds, I turn into Hyper Knuckles."

"Great. Now imagine if you could transform into a third form. I don't know. Call it "Insano Knuckles" or something. You're affected by the emeralds just like Sonic. However, you use the negative energy of the chaos emeralds, while Sonic uses the positive energy. Do I have you so far?"

"Yeah. I'm here."

"Remember that stuff about positive and negative energy. It might be important later. Anyway, one thing I was always trying to figure out is why the chaos emeralds don't work for me. At first, I thought that I was like most people who simply can't access them at all. But then, I used the Super Emeralds to become Super Tails. So that made me wonder. I looked into it and it turns out that I'm affected by both the positive and negative energies in the emeralds at the same time. However, it's impossible to channel those energies simultaneously in the normal emeralds. You need a more powerful connection, like the super emeralds."

"So you need the help of a Master Emerald to get the full use of your powers," Knuckles chimed in.

"That's right. Now if you give me just a shard of the Master Emerald, I can use it to locate a new Master Emerald, probably even more powerful than the one here."

"Kid, I still don't know what you're talking about and frankly, I don't think you know what you're talking about, either."

"Yeah, Knuckles," Tails said as he nodded. "You're right. There's still a lot going on here I don't know. But I have to find out. I'm The Chosen One and I have to do this."

"Chosen One?"

"I can't believe you forgot about that. Your own ancestors prophesied that the Chosen One would gather the chaos emeralds and bring about the great harmony. The Ancient Walkers said so."

"I'll say it again, Tails. You're full of shit," Knuckles said sharply.

"Look, from what I know so far, these scrolls contain martial arts techniques unlike anyhting the world has ever seen before. Be honest that you're not a little curious about what you can do with that."

Tails could see on Knuckles' face that he wasn't impressed. It seemed like Knuckles was using every muscle he had to form that scowl of his. Even bringing up super crazy martial arts techniques didn't seem to work on him. The smile that Tails was wearing the whole time finally wore off.

"All right Knux," Tails said as he threw his hands up in frustration. "I can tell nothing I say is going to mean anything to you, and I'm tired of talking anyway, so I'm just gonna go."

"You finally said something I understood." That was Knuckles' only response.

"Wait!" Charmy butted in again. "This is getting really interesting. Tell me more Tails."

Vector bopped Charmy over the head. "You were the one who said this was boring, remember?"

"Yeah, but then Tails mentioned something about a dragon, and I remember there were pictures of dragons in the cave I was in, so I got curious. And look," Charmy held up one of the scrolls. There was an engraving of a dragon on theseal. "I'll bet this whole scroll talksabout dragons."

Tails swiped the scrollout of Charmy's hands and started unrolling it. "Makes sense. After all, Perfect Chaos had a whole dragon thing going on. Also, I remember the Meterex also used a draconic form when we fought them. And dragons were always symbols of power and magic. If we can locate the emeralds in space, we might encounter one."

"Oh my God!" Charmy's eyes grew ridiculously wide and he pointed his finger at Knuckles and shouted, "Knux! You better give us that freakin' Master Emerald right now so we can hunt down these dragons!"

Espio finally spoke up. "What are you getting so excited about, Charmy? Dragons aren't that exciting. Besides, if you really wanted to see a dragon, you've got Vector right here. He's got the basic look and he snores just as loud as one."

"Hey!" Vector shot back. Everyone laughed. Even Knuckles let out a small chuckle.

Tails was still poring through the dragon book. "I'm thinking that dragons actually are the creators of chaos emeralds, or perhaps guardian spirits. Something like that. The thing is, if I could master the power of chaos properly, I might be able to call one to service."

"Wow! You think you can do that?" Charmy asked excitedly.

"It could be just like how I call forth flickie birds when I turn into Super Tails. It's only logical that I could call other creatures to fight for me when I control the power of chaos. Summoning arts is just one of the techniques passed down by the kitsunes."

Tails closed the book and turned towards Knuckles. His smile returned and he extended his hand towards Knuckles, hoping to get a handshake from him. "All right, Knux. What do ya say? Are you gonna help me become Mobius's Sorcerer Supreme or what?"

"Sorcerer Supreme? What a lame title. I thought you were the Chosen One." Knuckles answered.

Tails gritted his teeth. "They're not mutually exclusive. And you didn't answer my question. Yes or no?"

Vector, Espio and Charmy all tilted their heads closer to Knuckles, waiting in suspense for the answer.

"No."

"Wow," Tails said in a dejected voice. "Just like that."

"What did you expect? You want me to sing and do an interpretive dance?"

"That would be kinda funny," Charmy replied.

"It would look ridiculous," Espio muttered.

"I know. It's just…you know, you just ended a whole quest with a one syllable, two letter word." Tails said. "Just say no." Like drugs, right?"

"I think you're all high on something anyway," Knuckles replied.

"OK, Knux. You win. We're outta here. Let's go, guys. Our mission is over."

"What? That's it? You're just giving up and going? Come on! Let's work this out," Charmy pleaded.

"Don't worry, Charmy. They'll be other opportunities," Tails said optimistically. "It just might take a little bit longer, that's all."

"Didn't you say you were leaving?" Knuckles said with his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, we're going," Tails replied as he made his way towards the X Tornado.

After walking away for about a minute, the Tails stopped and turned to face Knuckles. "Wait. I just wanna say one more thing." Now he looked angry.

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is. So listen up, Knuckles. All this time I've known you, you've always treated me like a little kid. To you, I'm just Sonic's geeky little sidekick who just plays around with mechanical toys. I was always weaker, wasn't I? Well, let me ask you something. Who's the real immature one standing here? Is it me, or is it you who's such a stubborn jerk that anyone who so much as breathes in the direction of your island pisses you off? Maybe for you it's a sign of strength to refuse a request, even if it may be a little difficult."

The vulpine's behavior caught Knuckles completely off guard. "Know, hang on. I…didn't mean it that way," he said.

Tails got right up in Knuckles' face and gave the echidna a jab in the chest with his index finger then went on. "Or maybe you think it's childish to be open minded and have a desire to seek out your own potential. It's ok. You weren't the first to think this way. But you know what? Even Robotnik, who is like the most immature human being on the planet has a thirst for knowledge and knows the value of learning new discoveries. But those things don't mean a thing to you, do they? So fine. Go back to your Master Emerald. It's still early in the morning. You can go back and make love to that rock or whatever it is you guardians do there. I don't care. I'm not coming back to bother you anymore. I'm going back home to study. Maybe with a little work, I can synthesize my own Master Emerald. Oh, but that wouldn't interest you. It's just kids stuff."

Tails continued to walk away, but stopped again and turned to face Knuckles once more. "Just one more thing. Cosmo used to tell me how much respect she had for you, Knux. She never thought you were a gullible fool. She believed you were trusting and honorable. In her eyes, you were a real hero. Ask yourself. What would she say if she were here right now?"

Knuckles stood there speechless. Nobody ever spoke to him that way before. He didn't know what to think. He stood in that same spot as he watched the X Tornado blast off and fly off into the horizon. When it disappeared, Knuckles walked off to his shrine where the Master Emerald awaited. He lay down next to it, but he didn't fall asleep. He was wide awake, chewing over the morning's events. The Master Emerald continued to resonate with its glow. He continued to think and then finally he got up and stood before the Master Emerald.

"Oh, Master Emerald, what do you think I should do?"

End Chapter 2


	4. The Deepest Love

Chapter 4- The Deepest Love

**Station Square**

Tails sat, perched on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Station Square. He sat near the edge to get nice view of the city. It was late in the morning and the sun shined pleasantly over the city. Tails enjoyed soaking up the rays of the sun. He could lie down and bathe in the sun's radiance all day. It also helped take his mind off the events that happened a few days ago. That scene with Knuckles was still nagging in the back of his mind.

"_Why does that guy have to be a total jerk? How many times did I help him protect the Master Emerald? How ungrateful can you get? I have a good mind to go right back to that island and just steal the Master Emerald right from under him."_

Tails got up and started pacing back and forth over the roof, still thinking.

"_No. I can't just go and steal it. Even if I could get away with it, it's not my way to steal things. I could ask Rouge to do it for me. No. That doesn't change anything. Getting her involved with this would make everything too complicated."_

Tails walked over to the edge of the roof and sighed. "I can't think about this anymore. I should just relax right now.I know. I'll go see Sonic."

**Sonic's House**

"_It's been days since I last spoke to Sonic. Let's see what he's up to."_

Tails walked up to Sonic's doorstop and opened the door without even ringing or knocking. He knew Sonic wouldn't care.

"Hey, Sonic," Tails wave and yelled out a hearty greeting.

"Hi, Tails," Sonic returned the greeting. "What's up, bro?"

"Not much. Just wanted to see ya. It's been awhile and the last couple of days really sucked. I didn't want to just be alone thinking about it, so I decided to see how you were doing."

"Actually, I'm still recovering from my birthday party from last week," Sonic said with a laugh as he rubbed his forehead.

"I hear that. That was the craziest party we ever threw. You were such a drunkard."

"Look who's talking. You drank like an animal, too."

Tails blushed. "It was the first time I ever had alcohol. I didn't know what would happen. But I never threw up," he said proudly. "You're lucky you didn't get arrested for serving alcohol to minors."

"Tails, we were all minors. Besides, you fight evil and build starships. You design weapons that are probably illegal. The term 'underage' doesn't really apply to you. Anyways, I thought you'd appreciate being treated like an adult for once."

"I do appreciate it, Sonic. You stopped acting like a parent and started becoming more like a friend. And that's what I've always wanted. And as you're best friend, I should warn you, you can do some pretty crazy things when you get drunk."

"Yeah? Like what"

Tails chuckled just by thinking about what he was about to say. "Well, ummmm, you did this really exotic dance. I'm not sure what it was called. Amy knew the name. By the way, you were hitting on her."

"What?"

"And Cream."

"Really?"

"And Knuckles."

Sonic scratched his head and looked bewildered. "You're really serious about all that? I don't remember a thing."

"It's no big deal, Sonic. Amy was tipsy also. Cream's mom took her home before it got too crazy. And Knuckles passed out on the couch and forgot everything. Did you know that he passed out after only one beer? He's a total lightweight."

"Really. Heh. That Knux. He'd probably lie if he was asked."

"So what else have you been doing besides sobering up?"

"Actually, I've been pretty busy lately, buddy."

"Doing what?"

"I've been having fun with the new birthday present you get me, bro." Sonic motioned his hands towards the big computer on his desk.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot all about it. I worked around with it so it would give you the fastest internet connection ever."

"I would never use it if it weren't that fast," Sonic proudly answered. "It's one of the best birthday presents I've ever got."

"Wait a minute," Tails said as he gave a sly smile. "I know what you've really been up to. You've been looking at porn on internet, haven't you?" Tails pointed an accusing finger at the hedgehog.

"What?" Sonic yelled in disbelief. "What makes you think I would do that?"

"Come on, Sonic. You can't fool a computer whiz. If you've been looking at porn, I'll be able to tell."

Tails jumped onto Sonic's chair and started playing around on his computer.

"Let's see how many gigs you've downloaded already." Tails said as he browsed through Sonic's desktop. "Well, I'll be. You really haven't been looking at porn. My bad," Tails grinned sheepishly.

"Told ya. Now get, off," the hedgehog commanded. "I've got a lot of fan mail to answer."

Suddenly, Tails felt a rumbling in his stomach. "Yeah. That reminds me. I'm staaaaaaarrrving," Tails moaned as he rubbed his stomach. "Ya got anything to eat?"

"Check the fridge," Sonic pointed his finger towards his kitchen.

Tails hopped over to the kitchen and opened the fridge door with enthusiasm. It was empty, except for an expired bottle of milk and some old Chinese cartons.

"_I swear, I've known him my whole life and I don't get him at all. How could anyone have an empty fridge with nothing but rotten food? He must have eaten everything already and he's too lazy to go shop again."_

"There's nothing good in your fridge," Tails whined. "Don't you have any birthday cake left?"

"You ate the whole thing, remember?" Sonic scolded. "I didn't even have any."

"It must not have been a very big cake then. You should try something larger next time," Tails rebutted.

"It was a wedding cake!"

The vulpine let go of the cake argument after he heard that and changed to a different topic. "Do you have any ice cream left? I'm sure nobody finished all of that."

"You left it out last time and it all melted."

"So? They turn into milkshakes! They're great!"

"You're hopeless," Sonic sighed.

Tails opened the freezer door and found a bunch of chili dogs lying in the back.

"Hey, Sonic. I found some chili dogs. Can I eat them?

"Were they in the freezer?" Sonic hollered back.

"Yeah."

"Don't eat those. They're like three months old," he cautioned.

"I don't mind. I'm sure they taste just fine. I mean, they were in the freezer and all."

"Fine," Sonic shrugged. "But don't blame me if you get sick."

Tails ignored Sonic's warnings and threw the chili dogs in the microwave.

"So what's eating you, anyway?" Sonic continued the conversation from across the room while he worked on the computer.

"Eating me? No Sonic, I'm the one doing the eating right now. Although I hear that when you get really hungry, you technically do start to eat yourself. Your body feeds off the reserves of fat that you have inside you or something. I read about in-"

"No. I meant what's bothering you. You said you were upset."

"Oh, yeah. But I came here because I wanted to forget about that right now. It's not a big deal. I just got into a fight with Knuckles. That's all."

"Well, I'm glad you're not letting him get to you, little bro. I'm proud of you. It's good to know when to be cool and not let things get to you. Being chilled out has always been my specialtAAAAAHHH! Damn it to Hell!"

Sonic let out a painful scream just as the microwave dinged to tell Tails that his chili dogs were done. "Sonic! What's wrong?" Tails grabbed the chili dogs out of the microwave, threw them on a plate, and heroically dashed into the living room, with chili dogs in hand. "Don't worry, Sonic! I'm coming!" he cried.

Sonic was just sitting at his computer, but his head was hanging low, trying to avoid looking at the screen.

"Sonic, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

The hedgehog pointed towards his computer screen and in a grumpy voice said, "Look."

Tails stared at the screen. He didn't see anything strange. Then, he noticed that an AIM thing was on screen. He bent down to get a closer look and read it. The message was written in pink and the screen name was Amyrulz.

Amyrulz: Hi, Sonic!

"That's it? You're freaking out because Amy is online?" Tails asked as he bit into a chili dog.

"What do you mean 'that's it?' This is a big deal Tails. What am I supposed to do?"

Amyrulz: r u there?

"You know she's never gonna go away. I'm gonna be stuck talking to here all day. Damn it! Why did I sign up for this thing in the first place?"

Amyrulz: Sonic! I know you're there. Come on out

"Just talk to her, Sonic."

"OK. OK," he groaned and reluctantly typed in a response

Blublur15: hi, amy.

Amyrulz: hi, sonniku

"_I hate it when she calls me that."_

Amyrulz: I miss you, sonikku. I haven't seen you in a week.

Blublur15: gotta keep running. you know that.

Sonic looked really down. He was not enjoying this. His face was resting on one of his hands, while the other hand did the typing.

Amyrulz: when will I get to see you?

Blueblur15: I dunno

Tails swallowed his chili dog and bent down to speak into the hedgehog's ear. "Sonic, just tell her you'll go on a date and she'll go away."

"Yeah, but then I'm gonna have to go on a date with her."

Amyrulz: I miss you, sonniku.

Blueblur15: uh-huh

"What a dull conversation. This is really pathetic," Tails lamented and he bit into another chili dog. "That's it, I'm taking over. Step aside, Sonic."

Tails shoved Sonic out of the way and sat down on his chair, still with a chili dog in his mouth.

"What are you doing Tails?" Sonic yelled.  
"Being your little bro for once," Tails said as he typed away on the keyboard.

Blueblur15: Let's go on a date tomorrow, amy

Amyrulz: oh, sonic. I've been waiting forever for you to say that

"Tails! No!" Sonic cried out. But he knew it was futile at this point.

Blublur15: We'll spend all day together

Amyrulz: oh, sonic.

"All day? Is that really necassary?" Sonic felt like he was going to faint.

Blueblur15: We'll start by going shopping

Amyrulz: oh, sonic. I luv u

Sonic slapped his forehead

Blublur15: in the evening, we'll have a romantic candle light dinner. Just the 2 of us

Amyrulz: oh, yes

Blublur15: And then we'll top it off with a walk on the beach

Amyrulz: yes, sonic. oh, yes. It's like a dream come true

"This is a nightmare. This isn't happening. He can't be doing this to me," Sonic kept telling himself that to comfort himself, but his eyes were wide with panic.

Blublur15: but wait. there's more for us, amy rose

Amyrulz: oh, sonikku what is it?

Blueblur15: then we'll get down and have mad sex right there on the beach

Sonic gave a look of utter shock. His emerald eyes disappeared, leaving a white blank stare. His jaw could have rocketed right through the floor.

Amyrulz: OMG! SONIC!

Blublur15: like crazed monkeys

Amyrulz: What?

Tails's mouth was opened wide with a smile and his tongue was hanging out of it and he started to drool as he typed. His two namesakes were wagging furiously. Those cobalt eyes gleamed with a sign of mischief. He knew this was making Sonic go crazy. Sonic, meanwhile was banging his head against the wall several times.

Blueblur15: you know how much I love it when you flash your panties. i expect to see much panty flashing tomorrow

Amyrulz: SONIC! I can't believe you're saying this. You're making me blush

Blublur15: That's what I'm lookin' for

"Tails, you'd better got off that thing right now!"

Tails took a quick glance tosee Sonic's angry face. He returned it with a bored look, his eyes half closed. _"Eh. Knuckles was angrier than that," _he thought to himself. _"Now to top it off."_

Blueblur15: I have some good pornos we can rent to put us in the mood

Amyrulz: Sonic! I can't believe what you're saying

Blublur15: believe it, babe. just get ready tomorrow night. I'm gonna rock you and take you away to another dimension. It'll be so hardcore. I'll have to turn supersonic for this.

Amyrulz:...

"That does it!" Sonic picked up Tails and threw him across the room, where he landed safely on the couch. The hedgehog picked up a pillow and slammed it into the vulpine's face. Tails fell off the couch onto the floor, cracking up. Sonic quickly sat down to his computer. He hoped maybe he could fix some of the damage that was done. He looked at his screen. It read:

Amyrulz has signed off at 11:58 AM

"I think she might have died from shock," Sonic said as he logged off from his computer. He then turned to face Tails.

"Do you realize what you've done?" the hedgehog screamed.

"Hahahahahahahahah," Tails tried to give a coherent response, but he was rolling on the floor laughing. "Yeah. I've just ignited the spark of your love life," Tails said in between laughs. "You'll thank me later."

Sonic pointed his finger towards the door and said, "Tails, it's time for you to go. You've done enough already."

After hearing that remark, Tails found that it was a lot easier to make his laughter subside. "Aw, come on, Sonic. There's no need for you to get so upset. Spending the date with Amy isn't gonna kill you."

"If you think it's that easy, then you can date her."

"But Sonic," Tails tried to reason as Sonic escorted him outside the door, "Amy doesn't have the hots for me. There would be such a bad chemistry between us. And I hate the color pink. Besides, if I was going on a date tomorrow, I'd have to take a bath."

"If those are your only problems with dating Amy, you should count yourself lucky."

"Anyways, I don't feel like dating anybody these days. I still have Cosmo on my mind."

"Listen, buddy, "Sonic put his hand on Tails's shoulder. You're still only ten years old. There's no need to rush and find a new girlfriend, but one day, you're going to need to let Cosmo go."

Tails brushed Sonic's hand away from him gently. "Sorry, Sonic. Right now, I just can't do that. I'd try to explain it to you, but I don't think you'd understand."

"Come on, pal. Try me."

Tails changed the goofy expression on his face. Now he looked deadly serious. "I feel her spirit with me. It's such a strong feeling. At first, it made me sad, bit now, I'm not mourning her loss. In fact, it gives me such joy to feel Cosmo's presence around me. I can really feel her with me. Maybe she's not really gone."

"Tails, you saw what happened that day. Cosmo is gone."

"Yeah, I saw what happened, but we don't know anything about her species. Maybe she could survive or regenerate."

"Those are just dreams, Tails."

"Or maybe there are things that go beyond science and technology."

"OK, buddy. Now I'm starting to lose you. Even when Shadow and I used chaos regeneration, all we got was a small seed."

"And that just proves that we just need to use more advanced methods of chaos control," Tails replied.

"I think you're talking about something that's too big for us, pal."

"I'm just theorizing, Sonic. I never planned on bringing Cosmo back to life. Just sometimes I wonder." Tails started to look up at the clear blue sky and just kept staring. "I mean it when I said Cosmo would talk to me. She would talk about me. Sometimes she talked about you."

"Oh?" Sonic really didn't know what to think of all this, so he went along. "And what did she say about me?"

"She talked about you and Amy. She would go back to that day when we were on that planet. Amy learned about some kind of spell that would make two people fall in love forever if they would dunk in the magic waters. She prepared a trap so that you and Amy would fall into the water and you would be in love forever.

"Yeesh! Amy really went through all that trouble?"

"Yup. Except her trap was sprung too early by Cosmo and me and we were the ones who fell into that pond. Then we looked up at the full moon, and everything between us was different.We were able to share our ture feelings for each other. I'm not saying that the spell made us fall in love. Maybe it wouldn't even have worked on you. I had feelings for Cosmo before that happened, but there was something special about sitting together in the sparkling waters and gazing at the moon. Cosmo told me that we had very deep love. She said that it was meant for you and Amy to also experience this love. Amy feels this. She knows it. Even if she doesn't know she knows it. I know she acts like a silly fan girl. But inside her is something very deep. You have the potential to bring that out of her."

Tails's eyes started to get watery. _"Wow! He's really serious about this," _Sonic thought.

Tails pushed back his tears and said, "It could be the deepest love in the world."

"Is that why you did all of that back there?" Sonic didn't want to mention what exactly "that" was.

"Like you said, Cosmo isn't here anymore. I can't have a relationship with here like I used to. But Amy is here. And she's here for you. It would be a shame to lose her like I lost Cosmo. You can't let these opportunities disappear."

"All right, Tails," Sonic conceded. "I hear what you're saying. Tomorrow, I've got a date with Amy Rose."

"Glad to hear it. And you know, Sonic," Tails said with a sly smle as he inched closer to Sonic, "if the date turns out to be a disaster, you can always come to my place and have some of my 'special grass,' if you know what I mean." He then gave the hedgehog an elbow in the stomach and winked.

"Pilot, matchmaker, and a drug dealer. You're a cute kid, Tails," Sonic laughed

"Awww. That's so sweet of you to say that, but you should save the sweet, mushy talk for tomorrow. You'll need to use it."

"Don't worry, pal. It's Amy. Anything I say is like music to her. I don't even need to try," said the hedgehog.

Tails yawned and stretched his arms, "Well, I'd better get going," he said. "I've got a lot of stuff to work on. Hey, Sonic. Did I ever tell you about what I found on Angel Island?"

"Not a word."

"Oh. I'll tell ya about it later, I guess. I don't wanna bore you with all the technical details. But I just wanna give you a heads up. Keep an eye out for some new kick ass inventions of mine." With that, he waved goodbye to the hedgehog and flew off.

"New stuff, huh? I wonder what the little guy is up, too." Sonic asked himself.

**Mystic Ruins**

Tails flew back home to the Mystic Ruins. "Man, I'm beat" he said to himself, breathing deeply. He left the X Tornado at home, so he did all his flying for the day with his tails. Now was the time to rest. He headed straight for his kitchen and opened up the fridge, which was filled to the brim with food. All of it unhealthy in some way or another. He reached for a can of soda, opened the tab with a satisfying spritz and guzzled it down. "Man, that's good," Tails said, as he wiped his muzzle. He opened up the pantry to grab a snack. There was a tremendous hoard of junk food inside." Hmmm. I shall choose the cheesy poofs." He opened the bag of cheesy poofs with zeal and stuffed some of the little orange spheres into his mouth. "Nobody knows this, but there's lies a power inside cheesy poofs that is strongr than even the chaos emeralds," he laughed to himself. "But on to business." Tails walked out of the kitchen carrying his soda, cheesy poofs, and a unopened box of powdered donuts into his study. A pile of mystical scrolls was sitting on his desk. He took another sip of soda to wash down the cheesy poofs and sat down at his desk to begin his studying.

---

**Mystic Ruins, Tails' Workshop 9:00 PM**

Night fell as Tails spent all day poring through the ancient scrolls. He had managed to skim through every last one of them and had gone through in depth quite a few of them. He was at the point where he could read the language of his ancestors efforltessly. One particular scroll caught his attention. Unlike the other scrolls, which were written in ink, this one was written in blood. _"This one's pretty intense. Every technique here is completely forbidden. Creating zombies, placing undead curses, summoning demons, blood rituals, mind slaves, covering the lands in darkness. This is very heavy stuff. I should read everything just for the sake of reference. Maybe there's some tricks here about how to negate these things," _the kitsune covered his mouth that had just let out a big yawn. _"Man, I'm tired. I'll just keep reading for a little while while longer, but before I forget, I'd better call them." _Tails reached for his phone and dialed the chaotix. After a couple of rings, he heard a voice on the line.

"Yello," it was Vector.

"Hiya, Vector. I'm glad it's you. No. No. The quest is still delayed. I'll have to worry about the Master Emerald later. In the meantime, I have another job for you."

End of Chapter 3


	5. Tails Vs The Ninjas

Chapter 5. Tails Vs. Ninjas!

**Tails' House 4:30 AM**

Tails told himself he would call it quits for the night, but he just got too engrossed in his work to do so. This was a common trait for him. Every time he had a new invention in mind, it would keep him up through the wee hours of the night. This was no exception. Tails had just spent the entire night reading the most accursed formulas for damning the world with black magic. He pictured a number of people who would love to get their hands on this material. _"Looks like it's my job to protect this stuff so it doesn't get into the wrong hands. I guess I'll spend tomorrow to check out the stuff on white magic." _Tails rolled up the scroll, sealed it and looked for a good hiding place for it. _"Maybe this is what was really bothering Knuckles. He was never one to really trust magic. But as long as I'm careful, nothing bad can happen from learning a few creepy-"_

An explosion broke the vulpine's quiet of his quiet study as well as his thoughts. Broken glass from a shattered sprayed everywhere. Tails instinctively shielded his face from the glass, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw a group of figures covered in black jump through the new opening in the window. A small pellet exploded, filling the room with purple smoke. Tails frantically turned around and looked through the smoke in all directions, hoping he could see any of the figures. A kunai flew into the kitsune's direction, knocking the scroll out of his hand.

_"Ninjas!" _Tails didn't have to be a genius to figure that out. He also had a good guess as to why they came. He made out some black blurs running through the haze. His eyes squinted to get a better look. Something was coming his way. A ninja flew towards him with his foot extended; knocking into the vulpine's face. A little bit of blood squirted out of his nose from the impact, while the force knocked him back into the wall. The smoke started to clear, but now the pain made his vision blurry. He looked at saw what looked like at least a dozen ninjas heading towards him.

_"I have no choice. I'll just have to fight them all._" Tails tried to make a good fighting stance, but his head was woozing from the blow he took. His knees gave in and he fell to the floor.

"_Get up, you wuss. A bunch of ninjas should be no match for the Chosen One. Just gotta stay focused. Think of a good move._" Tails felt something hard on the floor. It was a monkey wrench. "_This will do."_

One of the ninjas was preparing to knock him down with another kick. With the speed that one could expect from a guy who could keep up with Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails dodged the kick and counterattacked by swinging his wrench across the ninja's face. The wrench made a painful sounding thud against the ninja's face. He looked at his weapon to see that blood had soaked through the ninja's mask to drip over the wrench. The ninja fell back staggering, but more of them started to approach him.

_"This is no good. I can barely see them all and there might be more hiding in the shadows. If everything wasn't so black...," _An idea came to his head. The thought made him smile. Tails spun his namesakes and flew out of arms reach of his attackers. He swooped low as fast as he could and grabbed that box of donuts that was previously serving as his midnight snack to keep him awake while perusing the dark arts. "Time to show you guys some ninja tricks of my own," he told them. He scattered powdered donuts all over the room, clouding everything and covering the black ninja uniforms in white dust. "Now I can see you all," the vulpine triumphantly yelled. His "donut jutsu" worked as intended and he could make out that thirteen ninjas were standing below him. As he suspected, two more were hiding in the shadows. _"Great. So now what do I do?"_

There wasn't much time to think as the ninjas sent a barrage of kunai and shuriken straight at him. The vulpine used all his speed as he ducked and dodged, zipped this way and that way. The weapons all missed him, instead, they embedded their sharp points into the ceiling.

"It seems like you guys are out of ammo," Tails said. "Looks you'll have to come up here yourselves.

No response from anybody. _"Typical of ninjas." _Another second later, and Tails heard a noise. It was faint sizzle. Coming from above him. He noticed that one of the kunai's embedded in the ceiling had an exploding tag attached to it. "Awww! No way!" the vulpine shouted as the tag exploded. The blast sent the fox slamming onto the floor on his back. "Also typical of ninjas," he said with a weak laugh. Tails tried to get up, but he couldn't. Ninjas from all sides surrounded him and unsheathed their ninja swords, pointing their blades just centimeters from the fox's neck.

To be Continued in Chapter 6


	6. Sparking It Up

A/N The last chapter was short, so this one will be long. A lot of things are going to happen, but try not to get confused. I promise everything will come together later.

**Yay! Reviews! Let's take a look!**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Wow! Thanks for being my first reviewer ever! In the history of the world! And I made your favorites? I'm touched. I shall now respond to your questions: 1. Tails, Sonic, Shadow, and Cosmo aren't the only ones who are still alive. As the story unfolds, we'll find out who lives and who dies, and who comes back to life. Stick around to find out! 2. Unforunatley, that was the first of many times Tails will get punched. 3. Dragons are on their way. Keep an eye out for them. 4. The story behind Tails' shady drug dealings are explored in this chapter. 5. Sorry if the ninja fight was too cliche for you, but there will be more ninja action coming. I'll make it more original next time.**

**Maverick 87: All right! Maverick 87, you have the honor of being Reviewer 2. I'll give you a cooler title later. Your welcome for the review on your story. And thanks for reviewing mine. I'm glad you like the story and I hope you continue to read.**

**Chapter 6 Sparking It Up**

Tails let out a lengthy and pitiful groan. Even considering his situation, it was the most exaggerated groan that could ever be heard. He let it out in honor of the bloody nose he was given, for the sharp pain in his back, and for the fact that thirteen swords wielded by ninjas were pointed his way while he was lying on the ground.

"Ok, guys. You got me. Why don't you put those knives away and give me a hand up," he said in a surprisingly calm way. "I know you're not here to kill me."

"Impressive, inventor," said a voice from the darkness.

"_Who…?"_

Out from the shadows stepped in a gorilla who had a face that appeared to be forever stuck in pissed off mode. Behind him was an old echidna who had a much calmer, in control, expression. He was wearing a black suit with a red tie against his white shirt. He had flowing black cape complete with gold trimmings. Grasped in his right hand was a cane made entirely of gold. His eyes were among the narrowest Tails had ever seen. If the wrinkles on his face said nothing about his age, a white scraggly beard descended from his chin. Upon his presence, the ninjas all backed away, removing their sword a safe distance away from Tails.

"An echidna?" Tails asked as he squinted at the old echidna in front of him. "I thought Knuckles was the only that's still left."

The gorilla bent down and lifted Tails off the ground. "You will stand up straight when addressing the master," he said in an ultra low voice.

"But…, my back hurts," Tails said as he winced in pain. His back was hunched over.

The gorilla grunted and pulled Tails' head back in an attempt to straighten him out.

"Uhhnnn!" Tails cried. He heard a very unpleasant sounding crick in his back. "My… back," he moaned again and immediately returned to his hunched over position.

"Infidel!" the gorilla shouted.

"You must forgive Mr. Goliath's demeanor, inventor. He's not used to dealing those who do not know me," the old echidna said.

"Yeah and you are…?" Tails asked while holding an arm on his back.

"I am called Lance the Echidna. I am the leader of this echidna ninja clan" he said as he gave a slight bow. As he waved his hand, all the ninjas lifted off their masks. They were all echidnas. "As you can see, not all the echidnas disappeared. We are a league known as the Crimson Emeralds."

"Crimson Emeralds?"

"No questions now. We are an organization, centuries old, dedicated to eradicating demons and destroying dark powers. We keep ourselves shrouded in secret. Even the guardian Knuckles knows nothing of our existence. We see all, but we ourselves remain unseen. We have been watching you for a long time, inventor."

"How long?"

"He said no questions, infidel," the gorilla growled and he punched Tails in the stomach. Tails flew back with droplets of blood flying out his mouth. He fell over on the ground, clutching his stomach. The gorilla stepped forward and raised his arm, ready to deal another blow. Before he got his chance, a ninja, still masked, gently laid her hand on the gorilla's arm.

"Relax, let me handle him," she said. Tails recognized the voice as feminine and also familiar. She maneuvered around Tails, and then picked him up by the scruff of his neck.

"Ughhh! Lemme go!" Tails protested. He noticed there was a kunai in her other hand. The ninja took off her mask, revealing her face. Tails recognized it immediately.

"Don't be scared, Tails. I've gotcha now," the bat smiled and said as she pulled the kunai up to his neck.

"Rouge? What are you doing here?" Tails exclaimed. "Since when were you hanging out with these weirdos?"

"Oh, come on, Tails baby. If you were offered to work with the government or a secret clan of ninjas with unlimited resources, who would you choose?"

"_She has a good point," _Tails thought. "So you guys went through a lot of trouble to get me. Am I really that dangerous?"

"No," Lance said. "But you could be. The Kitsunes who created these scrolls brought devastation to Angel Island. We did our best to fight them back. Aside from Chaos, they were our greatest threat. Eventually, they left and we sealed away their techniques deep in Hrydrocity. Now, if you don't mind, we're taking them back." Lance bent down to the floor and picked up a donut that was still in the box and took a bite out of it. "You're very good," he said with his mouth full. "You should consider joining us and become a ninja. Your life shall be my gift to you. Unhand him, Rouge."

"You got it," Rouge opened up her hand and let Tails drop to the floor.

"We'll be seeing you, inventor," Lance said as he turned his back and started walking away.

"Not if I see you first," Tails muttered.

Lance stood still for a second. In one fluid motion, he pulled a thin sword out of his cane and thrust it out so it was just barely touched the fox's nose.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said with a smirk. There was a menacing gleam in his eyes.

Tails's eyes were wide eyed with horror. _"This guy is really fast! He's the kind of guy I'd better not blink around." _Of course, Tails did blink. When he did, Lance and all the ninjas had vanished. Tails glanced around the workshop. The kitsune scrolls were gone, too.

"_Damn it! I can't let them just get away like that!" _Tails ran out the door of his workshop into his backyard. He looked around to see if he could find any trace, but there was nothing. Still, he knew they could hear him. "You losers better run! When it comes time for round two, I'll be ready! In fact, I'm ready right now! Just try and throw something at me!"

Tails ears perked up when he heard something immediately. Something was coming behind him. Coming in fast. He spun around to see a kunai spinning straight for him. "_Crap! I'm dead."_ There was not time for him to dodge. He just stood there, waiting for the inevitable. The knife struck him dead on. The blunt part. Tails staggered back a little. He just couldn't stand anymore. That was too many hits for him today. His body could take no more, so he collapsed backwards onto the earth. _"They're laughing at me now."_ Then he closed his eyes and let the unconscious world take him.

Darkness. That's what Tails would dream about lately. Particularly when he had a bad day and today was making it up there on his list of bad days. After a long time, a thin ray of light broke the darkness. It was the light of the sun. Tails just slightly opened eyes.

"Uggghhhh, is it morning?" he groaned. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The sun beat down from high in the sky. "Mmmmmm. That feel's good," he said blissfully, and he let himself fall back to the ground. "I'll just lie here all day."

A beeping sound was ringing in his ear. Tails raised his hand up to look at his watch. The time was 1:00 PM. _"Why did I set an alarm for 1:00?" _he wondered. Suddenly, he remembered why and he jumped up excitedly. "Oh, my God! Sonic's gonna date Amy now!

**Amy's House**

Sonic walked up towards Amy's front door. He didn't change his appearance much, but he felt this was a special occasion, so he threw a red tie around his neck. He was also carrying a bouquet of pink roses in his hand. He let out a deep sigh and knocked on the door.

The hedgehog waited one second, then turned around. "I guess she's not home. She must have forgotten the whole thing. Oh, well."

Sonic was about to walk off, but then heard something behind the door. They were very frantic footsteps. The door burst off its hinges and a very hyper pink hedgehog lunged at Sonic. She wrapped her arms around Sonic and tackled him to the ground, creating a purple blur as the blue and pink hedgehogs collided. Sonic was pinned on the ground as Amy squealed in joy. "Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Sonnikkuuuuuuuu!"

"_This is gonna be a long day," _Sonic thought.

Meanwhile, Charmy was sitting on top of a telephone pole across the street and was spying on the hedgehog couple through a pair of binoculars. "Oh, yeah. Grab her ass," he said seductively.

"Charmy! What's going out there?" Vector shouted through a radio in the bee's ear.

"Amy's raping Sonic," he said with a chuckle.

Vector and Espio were holed in their spy van, which was parked down the street. They were setting up their surveillance equipment that they planned to use to spy on Amy. "So what're they doing now?" Espio asked.

"Let's just say this date is off to a good start."

"I still don't see why Tails asked us to do this," Espio complained. We're detectives, not cupids."

"Obviously, it's because we were so successful last time," Vector said proudly.

"So what's the plan, anyway?"

"We'll make it up as we go along. Let's just watch them for now and see how it goes."

Amy finally loosened her grip on Sonic a little, allowing him to get up and breathe. "That was very intense," he said, gasping for air.

"Oh, Sonic," Amy giggled. "This is going to be the most intense day of your life." She then grabbed his arm and led her into the house. "Don't worry about the door. We'll fix that later."

"They went inside the house," Charmy reported.

Inside Amy's house, Amy took the roses and put them in a vase. "Oh, Sonic. I love these roses. How did you know pink was my favorite color?"

"Guessed."

"Come on and take that silly tie off." Amy grabbed Sonic's tie, unraveled it, and threw it aside. We'll go buy you a new one today if you want. Come to think of it, I've never been to the men's stores. Oooohh! This'll be so much fun! Should we go shopping now or shall we do it later?"

"Uhhh, let's just go now," Sonic said very unenthusiastically. "Come on. I'll have us there in a sec."

"Wait, Sonic. I don't want to run there."

"_Don't want to run...?" _Sonic thought she was speaking some alien language

"No," Amy protested. "We're going to walk there. It's such a beautiful day and I want to enjoy it."

"How about we just walk really fast?" Sonic negotiated.

"No. We're going to take our time. Besides," Amy put her head on Sonic's shoulder. "We have soooo much to talk about."

"_Robotnik, wherever you are, I hope you're ready to start your latest plan to destroy the world. Preferably today."_

Charmy still sat on the telephone pole, waiting for something to happen. He got his wish when he saw Sonic and Amy walk out of the house. Sonic looked like a prisoner sentenced for life as he walked with Amy squeezing his arm. She was skipping along, merrily humming a tune. "This doesn't look good at all," Charmy said as he shook his head. "Guys, they left the house and their walking towards the mall. Very slowly."

"That's no good," Espio said. "Sonic and going slow don't mix. We'll have to do something to improve his mood. Any ideas, Vector?

"Hmmm. Maybe we should get him drunk," Vector said.

Espio sighed and shook his head. "That won't work. As soon as he sobers up, he'll be one grouchy hedgehog. If he remembers anything, he'll think it was a bad dream.

"Grrrrr. We've dealt with tougher cases than this," Vector growled. "If getting Sonic drunk isn't the answer, we'll have to use something else on him.But what?"

**Mystic Ruins**

Amy wasn't the only one who thought that it was a gorgeous day. Tails also thought that it was an awesome day. The sun shined brightly, but there was no excessive heat. There wasn't a single cloud that could be found in the sky. It was a sky that radiated a perfect, calm blue. Tails was taking a stroll in his backyard, tending his garden.

The garden was a new project of Tails. Something that inspired him after he met Cosmo, Tails had taken a new interest in plant life. Even he got tired of working with machinery, so he picked up gardening as a hobby.

"Feeding time," he declared. Tails opened a small box that released a couple of flies. The flies hovered over the nearest plant, unaware that it was a venus fly trap. Tails walked off to tend to the other plants, leaving the flies to their grisly fate.

Tails didn't have a normal garden. In fact, it was downright weird. Not a single flower bloomed there. There were no vegetables in the ground. Instead, the backyard of his workshop was populated with flesh eating plants, some exotic poisonous plants, and spiked plants, vines of all shapes, and sizes, and a patch of grass that Sonic really loved. The only edible things that could be found were the chili peppers he managed to grow, and some onion bulbs. Both were essential for making chili dogs.

Aside from the chili peppers, Sonic's favorite part of Tails' garden was the patch of cannabis that Tails somehow grew. He went over to water it and giggled as he remembered when the grass first started to sprout.

Flashback

"Tails! What the Hell is that?" Sonic asked pointing to a patch of grass

"Come on, Sonic. Don't make fun of my garden. I tried really hard and these weird things were the only things I could grow."

"No, Tails. This is awesome. You've just grown a helluva lot of cannabis."

"A can of bliss?"

"Yeah," Sonic laughed. "You could call it that."

"That's just a patch of grass over there. Who cares about that?"

"What? You seriously don't know what this is?"

Tails just shrugged

"_This makes sense. I always made sure never to smoke up when the little guy was around. I guess he wouldn't know about this stuff."_

"Weed," when Sonic heard Tails say the word, he snapped out of his thoughts instantly. "All I can grow is weeds. I'm a failure as a gardener."

"Whoa! Take it easy little bro. You're the coolest gardener I know. Everyone else grows the same stuff, but you're unique, buddy. You know what? These are some of the coolest plants in the world?

"R-really?" Tails asked, starting to feel much better.

"Yeah. Really," Sonic snickered. In the plant world, the Cannabaceae family reigns supreme in the Magnoliophyta division."

"Wow, Sonic! You really know a lot about plants!"

End flashback

Eventually, Sonic gave Tails some marijuana. He didn't care much for it, but he was happy that Sonic liked it a lot and was glad to be his main provider. It was the best way to deal with the hedgehog when he was moody. Tails didn't think much about Sonic's health, though. He knew narcotics would be the last thing to take down Sonic. Only if there was a threat did Tails put the weed off limits. He was well aware of how they could interfere with battle prowess.

After watering the weed to his satisfaction, Tails went to check up on the most important plant in the garden. Cosmo's seed. After two years. The little buds had sprouted into a nice stalk. The stalk grew up to the fox's own height and had sprouted leaves that had a rich, emerald hue. As soon as it started getting bigger, Tails removed the plant from the little clay pot it once inhabited and graduated it to the center of his garden. He wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen, but he kept it and took care of it all this time.

"_Cosmo," _Tails contemplated when he looked at his plant. He felt weird talking out loud to it, but he always had something to think about. _"Things haven't been going so well, lately. I'm…, well, I'm just too weak. There were setbacks. But I promise I'll find a way to bring you back and we'll be happy together again. You'll see."_

"_Amy and Sonic are dating now. I thought that if I spark up their relationship, it would help make us closer. It's a Karma thing. My kitsune ancestors used it a lot. Someday, I'm gonna be the Chosen One. And I'm gonna bring harmony to the world, and…" _he hardly noticed that tears were streaming down his face, _"…and we're gonna live happily ever after. All of us will. I'll get rid of Robotnik. No. I'll end Death itself. And then, Cosmo, we'll be together forever. And I want everyone to share our happiness." _

**Station Square Shopping Mall**

Sonic and Amy spent the better half of the day in the any clothing stores in the mall. To Amy, it was one magical moment in time. To Sonic, it was a bleak eternity.

"And I'm gonna try on this one, and this one, and this one, maybe this one," Amy said, almost singing, really. With every article of clothing she thought of adding to her wardrobe, she threw it on top of Sonic for him to carry. Sonic was now holding up a gigantic pile of a palette of colors made out of cotton, wool, flax, silk, hemp, leather, and synthetic fibers. Every color, texture, and price found its way into the hedgehog's arms.

Sonic wasn't at all surprised that the dominant colors were pink and red. "Amy, are you almost done?" the hedgehog asked gruffly.

Amy wasn't the least bit put off by Sonic's uncouthness. "Don't get impatient, Sonic. I still have to try all these on. And then, we're going to the men's store to get you something nice."

"I don't need any clothes. I'm fine," Sonic sneered.

"But Sonic, we have to dress up for our romantic candlelit dinner tonight. Remember that? You promised."

Upon hearing that, Sonic thought of only one thing. _"Tails, I'm gonna kill you when this is over."_

Neither of them knew that Charmy was watching them, hidden inside a pink dress.

"Charmy, what do you have to report?" Vector whispered into his radio.

"I look great in a dress."

"Not that!" Vector shouted, startling Charmy. "What's up with the happy couple?"

"I think Sonic's starting to bug out. Poor guy. He's miserable."

"Damn it! Hey, Espio!" Vector yelled at the chameleon who was relaxing in the van's corner. "What did we do to get Tails and Cosmo to like each other?"

"We threw a disco ball at them."

"Hmmm. What can we use this time? You see, Espio, this is when you have to start really thinking like a detective."

Just then, Vector's thoughts were interrupted by police signals. "All units! All units! The Fireworks Factory is being robbed. Bark and Bean are behind it. Proceed with caution. Suspects are considered heavily armed and extremely dangerous!"

Espio jumped out of the corner. "Finally, we can do some real detective work. Let's go after Bark and Bean!"

"That's just the sort of crime for Bark and Bean. All right, Let's nail the bastards! Charmy!

"What?"

"Quit your cross dressing and get to the van. We've got another case! Bark and Bean are robbing the fireworks factory."

"That's awesome, Boss! I'm on it!" Charmy zipped out of the clothing store in lightning speed. That was exactly the kind of reaction Vector expected from Charmy. He was itching for some action. All three of them were.

"Espio, take the wheel." Vector ordered. He then pulled out a French SPAS-12 and started polishing it. "Time to get serious," he said with a gleam in his eye.

**Sixth Chapter complete! Please read and review. All comments and critiques are very welcome. This is my first story, so anything you have to say is greatly appreciated. **

**Next Chapter: Sonic and Amy's date takes an unexpected turn! And don't miss the exciting battle of Bark and Bean Vs. Tails and the Chaotix! It's gonna be intense! I'll update very soon!**


	7. Road Rage

**I'd said I'd update soon, so here we are again. **

**Reviewer Response Time**

**Blue Mage Quartet: Amy is dating Sonic and she couldn't be happier! Will their date be ruined? We'll find out, won't we? Tails does indeed keep weird plants. And they may just get wierder...**

**Maverick 87: Bark and Bean aren't shown in too may stories, but they like explosives, so they have to be in mine! Tails really made Sonic suffer last chapter, but don't feel too bad. He'll make it out of this one alive.**

**Captain Deoxys: You say interesting things! I like that. A kyuubi, huh? To tell you the truth, I was thinking of doing a Sonic crossover with Naruto. Would you like to see that? I don't think anyone's done it yet. And it makes so much sense, too. That goes for the rest of you readers out there, too. Let me know if you wanna see a Naruto crossover. I have some interesting ideas for that one... **

**Chapter 7 Road Rage **

**  
Station Square Mall, Men's Ware**

Sonic stepped out of the dressing room wearing a dark navy blue suit. His single breasted jacket was open and he wasn't wearing anything under it. A vulture salesperson gently tapped him from behind and said, "Here, put this on," he said handing Sonic a white shirt and a red and white striped tie.

"What is this supposed to be?" Sonic asked.

"It's part of the suit, genius," the vulture snapped at him. "Put it on."

"Whatever," Sonic grumbled as he fastened every button on his shirt.

"Sonic, the tie matches your shoes!" Amy said. "Isn't that cool?

"Oh, those sneakers will have to go," the vulture said.

"No way, pal. The shoes stay where they are. I can't run around in fancy shoes."

"It's ok, Sonic. We'll leave the shoes. Nobody looks at your feet anyway," Amy said. "I think sneakers with suits are a cool mix.

"Ucchhhhh!" the vulture said, rolling his eyes. "How utterly distasteful. Mr. Hedgehog, as a national hero, certainly you could have chosen a woman with more class."

"What?" Amy shrieked. "Sonic! Did you hear what that vulture said?"

"Yeah, I heard it. All right, buzz boy. You're really starting to get on my nerves." Sonic reared back his fist and delivered an uppercut to the vulture's beak. The blow sent him smashing into a mirror.

"Wow! Sonic. You're such a hero!" Amy cheered. "Way to clobber that stupid buzzer!"

"Yeah, well, I've always wanted to kick someone's ass while wearing a suit, actually."

"You insolent hedgehogs," sneered the vulture. "I don't care if you are a national hero. Nobody messes with the Men's Department!" Just then, five more vulture salesmen in suits crowded around the hedgehogs.

"More Action?" The hedgehog smirked. "Awesome."

"Let me have some, Sonic," Amy grinned as her piko piko hammer appeared out of thin air. The vultures all looked very worried now. She lunged at all five of them, swinging her hammer in a wide arc, all the vultures were mowed down . Little pink hearts materialized into the air following the hammer's wake.

"Sonic! That was amazing! You really taught those ugly vultures a lesson."

"yeah, I was bored. I needed to blow off some steam. I have to admit, Amy, fighting with you is a lot of fun."

"Really, Sonic?"

"Really. Now how about that dinner," Sonic asked as he straightened his tie. As they exited the now demolished suit store, Sonic started to wonder, "_Maybe this date won't be so bad after all."_

_

* * *

_

**Outside Station Square, Highway I97, over the river 6:00 PM**

Bark raced down the highway, putting the pedal to the medal. In his big red Mack delivery truck, he plowed through everything on the highway. Police sirens wailed as they chased the hijacked truck. Bark noticed a helicopter overhead. Most likely the local news station.

"Cool, Bark. We're gonna be on TV!" Bean proclaimed, rubbing his hands together and laughing.

Bark just glared at his little green partner. It was his fault that they were caught robbing the fireworks factory. With Bean around, they had no choice, but to move in broad daylight. If they did it at night, Bean would have surely set off all the firecrackers.

"There's nothing cool about being followed by the cops," yelled Bark. "This is all your fault, so get those cops off our tails."

The green duck grinned, "With pleasure." He held up a circular black bomb that seemed to appear out of nowhere and hurled it out the window.

The cops in the closest car screamed in horror when they saw the bomb roll under them. The cop car erupted in an inferno that claimed the lives of two policemen. Bean never looked around long enough to see what an explosion victim actually looked like. It was enough just to know that somebody was engulfed in a bomb blast. He snickered to himself. There were so many police cars after them. He could blow them all up.

A gunshot took out the mirror on the driver's side. Bark growled and poked his head out the window to find that the perpetrator was a cop on his motorcycle. He was riding right beside the Mack truck. Firing another shot from his pistol, the cop blew a hole through Bark's red hat, leaving Bark's head unharmed.

"_My hat! The bastard shot my hat!"_

The cop was really close to the truck now. Bark knew that if the jerk got in another shot, he'd be dead.

"_Fortunately, the idiot is close enough for me to do this," _The polar bear extended his arm out of the truck's window, and grabbed the cop's head, lifting him off his motorcycle. His body was now dangling from Bark's powerful grip. Meanwhile, the motorcycle, without its driver, skidded onto the asphalt, spraying yellow sparks everywhere and confusing the police cars.

"N-no! No! Put me down!" the cop begged. "Aiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee!" he screamed until the powerful polar bear twisted the man's head off. A splattering of blood painted the already red Mack truck and stained Bark's white fur. The headless body tumbled under the truck, only to get crushed to fleshy goo under the truck's tires.

"Ha!" Bark let out a grim laugh, then tossed the human head at Bean.

"Ahhh! Get that thing out of my face!" Bean yelled. He tossed the head out the window, combined with another bomb. The duck didn't even look back to see what exploded. The sound was just as pleasurable as the sights for him.

With one hand on the wheel, Bark used his other hand to wipe the blood off his fur. "Looks like we're gonna be home free."

"Bark! You jackass! Watch the road!" screamed Bean. Bark looked down on the road to find it scattered with miniature bombs.

"Can't get out of the way!" Bark tried to swerve as far way as he could, but it was impossible. The tires ran over the spikes. The two criminals heard the unpleasant sound of slashed tires combined with the road erupting from dozens of explosions.

"I've lost control!"

Blown tires weren't the worst experiences for Bark and Bean. What really ruined their day was when the entire truck tipped over on its side. The impact sent Bean flying out the truck, sending him bouncing over the hard pavement. Every time he struck the cement street, more feathers and skins would get scraped off his body. The duck would only stop when the back of his head slammed into the bumper of a demolished police car, knocking him unconscious. Or into a coma. There weren't any doctors on the scene yet.

Meanwhile, Bark remained in the truck, pulling hard on the brakes, for all the good it did him. The truck managed to slide along the asphalt for a grand total of 35 seconds, allowing it to travel a distance well over 50 feet.

For Bark, the trip might as well have lasted an eternity. The powerful friction of steel against rock eventually put the truck to a stop. As the sparks faded away, large clouds of smoke filled the area in a gray haze.

"Uhhhhhhh!" Bark groggily hopped out of the driver's seat, but he collapsed onto the street.

"_Not…uh…Not gonna take this lying down. Gotta get up."_

Bark shuffled along the carnage around him. He felt like he had been killed more times than a cat had lives. In his dazed state, the polar bear thought like he must have died. He felt like he was one of the walking dead, just like in all the zombie movies that Bean love to watched. He lurched about, in no discernible pattern.

His face was covered in blood and broken glass. One thing caught his attention. The buzzing sound of a biplane. Bark looked up to see the Tornado biplane hovering above him with its well known pilot in the cockpit.

"Gotcha biatch!" Tells yelled out at Bark. Normally, Tails would never talk like that, but today he was feeling really confident and in the mood to deal out some punishment after the whole ninja ordeal. "Make a move, and I pump you up with every bullet I've got."

Bark didn't look like he cared. He was too out of it to care. The only response he gave to Tails' threat was a drop to his knees. His face nearly smacked the pavement again, but he just barely managed to keep himself up.

"_What am I doing?_ _I can't just kill him. He's already near death." _

Tails landed the biplane next to Bark, then hopped out to tend to the wounded polar bear. In a gesture of genuine concern, the fox threw Bark's arm over his shoulder, so the wounded bear could have some means of support. "Hang on, Bark. We're gonna get you help. I promise. Come on. Walk with me. I'll get you into the Tornado. You'll be in a hospital in no time."

More police sirens blared and in no time, Tails found himself facing Station Square's entire SWAT team and their guns. The Chaotix van quickly followed.

"Tails! What are you doing here?" Charmy called out to him from the air.

"Saving the day, I guess," the vulpine answered with a grin and a thumbs up.

"Hey, dumbass!" yelled out one of the SWAT members. "Let go of that bear, he's a killer."

"What, Bark here? No, he's harmless now. Why don't you guys take him? He needs medical atten-"

Suddenly, the bear woke up from his stupor and grabbed Tails by his neck. He swung the vulpine around, using him as a shield between him and the cops.

"Let the kid go!" Vector yelled, baring his SPAS-12 shotgun in Bark's direction.

Bark was always the quiet type. In a situation like this, Bean would probably rattle off some smartass response. Bark preferred a more direct approach.

With the fox still held in his powerful grasp, Bark used his free hand to lift up an empty police car and throw it at the crowd.

The police and the chaotix scattered to avoid being pulverized by the vehicle. That allowed Bark the window he needed to avoid getting riddled with the bullets. With speed and agility that his bulk concealed, he leapt into the SWAT truck.

"What? Are you nuts?" Tails exclaimed. "You're still trying to make a getaway? You'll never make it out of here!"

"Shut up! You should've thought about that before going all gung-ho on us!"

"Listen, Bark," Tails pleaded. "They can go easy on you. You shouldn't do this."

"I said shut up!" Bark screamed. This time he mercilessly pounded Tails' face into the dashboard. One strike knocked the fox out cold.

"_Whichever cop was driving this thing was in too big a rush to take out the keys. Good news for me." _Bark smirked to himself and turned on the ignition. He was ready to make his getaway.

The SWAT truck raced through the highway. It wasn't easy thanks to Tails' explosions turning an otherwise smooth surface into disarray.

He's getting away!" Vector shouted, pointing his gun at the SWAT truck. "To the Crocmobile!"

"You're not actually going to use that thing, are you?" Espio asked.

"Why not? We're running out of time, anyway."

Vector ran back to the chaotix spy van, hopped into the driver's seat, and pressed a large green button. The normal looking van started to shift and it morphed into a huge, green, hi tech tank. A pair of rockets came out of the rear.

"Get in, guys!" the crocodile ordered.

"I'm not getting in there," Espio grumbled. "That thing hasn't even been tested yet."

"But Tails built it for us. I'm sure he would appreciate it if we used it to save him."

"You go ahead. I'll stop Bark my own way."

"Ignore him, Vector. He's just mad that we didn't paint the car purple," Charmy said.

"Purple? I'm not riding no damn pimpmobile!"

"I didn't want to ride in a car that's nuclear powered!" Espio shot back.

"Nuclear?" Vector asked, looking very shocked. "That _is_ very pimp like. But this is still the crocmobile. Now to activate. Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed!"

With the press of another button, the crocmobile's nuclear engines roared to life. A gout of flame poured forth from the rear rockets. A deafening roar blasted through the air, sending the car speeding down the highway.

"What's that sound?" Bark asked as he adjusted his mirror. "A green fireball?

"Green fireball?" repeated a groggy voice. Tails was awake again. "I like that sound of that."

"Who asked you?" Bark snapped at the fox. "I bet you have something to do with this, too!"

Bark really wanted to kill that two tailed fox. Every drop of blood that continued to pour down that battered face added more to his rage. He knew Bean would have just thrown a bomb at Tails, but Bark had a number of different, more grotesque ideas.

The polar bear probably would've killed Tails at this point, but having a hostage helped and he had to figure out what to do about that green thing coming after him.

The sounds were getting louder. Barks winced as the roar of the rockets drilled into his ears. Suddenly, his whole world became green as the tank jetted by. As the green blur continued to go faster, Bark noticed that the SWAT vehicle was going slower. His tires were feeling more resistance.

Bark poked his head out the window and bent down to look at his tires. They were buried deep in melted asphalt. He breathed deeply, frustrated about his predicament, but relieved that the blaring rockets were gone.

His relief was crushed when he heard a pair of booming loudspeakers.

"Attention, Bark! This is the Chaotix Detective Agency! You're under arrest. Give yourself up…" There was silence for a moment. Then, a pair of machine guns that resembled crocodile heads came out of the front of the tank. "…Or else."

"What the Hell is this?" Bark shouted, looking more flabbergasted than anything else.

"I built that for them," Tails proudly explained. "It's a nuclear powered tank that can easily reach supersonic speeds. Its rockets are hot enough to melt anything it drives over. That was actually an oversight. It can't fly yet, but I was meaning to make some modifications and…"

"Shut up!"

"To sum it up, it's the Crocmobile."

"I can't believe you don't shut up! Why don't you shut up?"

"Because if you kill me now, there's nothing stopping that tank and the SWAT team from blowing you away."

"_Ugh! Not only does this kid not shut up, but he has to be right, on top of that."_

Bark saw that a shotgun as left behind in the truck, so he grabbed and pulled the gun to Tails' head. "Come with me!" he barked.

Bark calmly stepped out of the truck just like the chaotix ordered. His left arm was wrapped around Tails, holding him in a vise. His right arm was holding the shotgun's trigger, pointed at he fox's head.

"What are you gonna do now? Huh? Shoot me?"

Vector stepped out of the crocmobile, gun raised to the polar bear and said, "Don't make this difficult, Bark."

"And what if I do, Croc boy?"

A lot of thoughts went through Vector's mind as they engaged in this standoff. _"Something's definitely not right here. Bark has never acted like this before. And how the Hell did he throw that police car? Bottom line, he was never that strong, that vicious. I'll have to stop him…at any cost. _

"Then I'll just take you down. And I don't care about what happens to the fur ball," Vector snarled.

"Vector…" Tails said, barely audibly. He was too shocked to speak properly.

"Go ahead, Bark. It's your move."

* * *

**Too be Continued in Chapter 8...**

**Next time: What will happen to Tails, the Chaotix, and everybody else who's doing stuff in the words written above you? **

**Thanks for reading, and please review. Tell me if you like it, hate it, or both somehow. **


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